Thu 26 April 2012

On the 21st of April in 1966, Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopa visited Jamaica.

A prophecy by Marcus Garvey told Rastafarians to “look to Africa where a black king shall be crowned, he shall be the Redeemer” shortly before Haile Selassie became Emperor of Ethiopia. Thus Selassie was recognised as the only true god and Ethiopia the spiritual homeland.

Some one hundred thousand Rastafarians came to Kingston airport in order to be present for the arrival of Selassie, acknowledged as the second coming of Jah.

THE HEAT that rose from the tarmac of Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport was nothing compared to the level of expectation that was seeping through the thousands gathered on the tarmac that 21st day of April, 1966. The day was declared a public holiday in honour of the Emperor and people had started arriving from Wednesday night from places near and far, to form the largest crowd to have ever assembled at the Norman Manley International Airport. They came to the airport any way they could ­ by car, by truck, by bus, by bicycle, by foot. Drum beats and chants were heard almost non-stop, providing an almost hypnotic rhythm. The smell of ganja wafted through the air completing a welcome unprecedented in size and expectation for the Emperor on his first state visit to Jamaica.

Since then, the date has been celebrated as Grounation Day, the second most important holy day on the Rastafarian religious calendar. Grounation Day is celebrated with music, chanting and prayer.

And on the 21st of April in 2012, the day was celebrated on Twitter with beautiful photographs taken all over the world:

Thu 19 April 2012

The 14th of February has become a well-known holiday around the world: Valentines Day. Imported by Hallmark in order to sell cards and eagerly grasped onto by local flower sellers and chocolate manufacturers, the romantic holiday has quickly spread. But in Korea, it is just one of a series of holidays all occurring on the 14th. On the 14th of February, women give gifts to the men. The 14th of March is White Day, when the men give gifts to the women.

And the 14th of April is Black Day, a day for those people who did not receive any gifts in the previous months. A day for those who are unabashedly single.

So, at this point I guess you know the drill for Black Day – it’s held every April 14th. How Black Day works is that for all the guys who didn’t receive chocolate and the girls who didn’t receive candy on the appropriate days, they eat this specific type of noodle called 자장면 (ja-jang-myun – noodles with black bean sauce) on Black Day to “celebrate” the “single” life. It’s really hard to explain everything in English because the context just isn’t the same … but yeah. It’s all a marketing gimmick by companies and/or restaurants in Korea really, but nobody cares too much about that.

Apparently, there’s also a Green Day on the 14th of August, a day for drinking cheap booze that comes in green bottles. Around here, we call that “pub night”.

Meanwhile, on the 14th of April in 2012, It may have been Black Day but the photographs submitted are anything but dark:

Thu 12 April 2012

On the 7th of April in 1652 Johan Anthoniszoon van Riebeeck, known as Jan van Riebeeck, became the 1st Commander of the Cape.

The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (the Dutch East India Company), the first multinational corporation in the world, had a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. Van Riebeeck joined them in 1639. In 1651 he volunteered to establish a resupply camp near the southern tip of Africa in order to re-supply ships travelling from the Netherlands to the East Indies. He landed three ships at the location now known as Cape Town on the 6th of April and built the Fort de Goede Hoop (‘Fort of Good Hope’) using mud, clay and timber. Van Riebeeck stayed on as Commander of the Cape for ten years, at which point he moved to Malacca. The outpost was known as “The Tavern of the Seas” and grew to become the Cape Colony as the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie encouraged more settlers.

For seventeen years after van Riebeeck’s departure, the Cape was at a standstill... But the efforts of the Governors were confined to the building of a castle which was to replace van Riebeeck’s wooden fort, now dilapidated and considered inefficient. Wouter Schouten says in 1658 that the fort had a “church where the word of God was preached,” but according to Theal, the large hall decorated with skins was the only church. It had a stuffed zebra at the entrance, and the attractive beast was removed before the service began, lest the attention of the congregation should be diverted.

The wild almond hedge that van Riebeeck had planted around the original fort still survives over 350 years later.

And on the 7th of April in 2012, these wonderful photographs were taken and sent to @SatScenes from diverse locations all over the world:

Thu 5 April 2012

On the 31st of March in 1985, the first Wrestlemania was held in Madison Square Garden, heralding the start of the World Wrestling Federation. The main event was a tag-team match between the WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. The event was a major success, which catapulted the World Wrestling Federation above competitive wrestling associations in the US. The WWF continued to hold larger and larger events, culminating with WrestleMania III.

Basil V. Devito Jr. wrote about Vince McMahon’s planning for the event in his 2001 book WrestleMania: The Official Insider’s Story, with the main event of Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant.

“We’re going all the way,” he said. “Find out what the record is for the largest indoor crowd in history – for any event. Then make sure we can put enough seats in the Silverdome to break it.”

Then he paused and smiled.

“What do you think?”

I swallowed hard. “Well, Vince, to be honest… I’m scared to death.”

With that, Hulk stopped, put down his bags, and turned to face us. He walked right up to me, not in a menacing way, but in a very serious way. He leaned down, put his nose a few inches from mine, and said in that sandpaper voice of his, “Ain’t you heard who the main event is, brother?”

The WWF excluded the state of Michigan from pay-per-view access to the event, so fans in Michigan could only see the competition if they attended. WrestleMania III set the world indoor attendance record of 93,173 fans and was also the largest paying attendance in the history of professional wrestling for its time.

Meanwhile, twenty-seven years later (ouch!) on the 31st of March in 2012, the following knock-down awesome photographs were taken: